The Samādhi Lists of the Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra and the Mahāvyutpatti
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- A Revised Edition of the Laṅkāvatāra-Sūtra, Kṣaṇika-Parivarta
- A Revised Edition of the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra, "Kṣaṇika-parivarta" (in Collected Papers)
- Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra, Vol. 1 (Braarvig, J.)
- Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra, Vol. 2 (Braarvig, J.)
- Amida Dhāraṇī Sūtra and Jñānagarbha's Commentary
- Ashṭasāhasrikā: A Collection of Discourses on the Metaphysics of the Mahāyāna School of the Buddhists
- Aṣṭa-sāhasrikā prajñāparamitā: A Sanskrit Manuscript from Nepal
- Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, with Haribhadra's Commentary called Ālokā
- Bhaisajya-guru-sutra: Original Sanskrit Text with Introduction and Commentary
- Bhaiṣajyaguruvaidūryaprabharājasūtram (Dutt, N.)
- Bhaiṣajyaguruvaidūryaprabharājasūtram (Vaidya, P. L.)
- Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabharājasūtra (Vira and Chandra)
- Bodhisatvapiṭaka (Bibliotheca Polyglotta)
- Bouddhisme: Notes et Bibliographie
- Buddhist Wisdom Books Containing the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra (1972)
- Catalogue of Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Possession of the Royal Asiatic Society (Hodgson Collection)
- Caturdharmikasūtra (Tseng, V.)
- Cuṇḍīdevīdhāraṇī (Zieme, P.)
- Das Gilgit-Fragment Or. 11878A im Britischen Museum zu London
- Daśabhūmikasūtra (Rahder, J.)
- Daśabhūmikasūtra et Bodhisattvabhūmi
- Daśabhūmikasūtram
- Daśabhūmīśvaro nāma Mahāyānasūtraṃ
- Dharma-Samuccaya: Compendium de la Loi, Vol. 1
- Dharma-Samuccaya: Compendium de la Loi, Vol. 2
- Dharma-Samuccaya: Compendium de la Loi, Vol. 3
- Die Bhadracari, eine probe buddhistisch-religiöser lyrik
- Die Überlieferung vom Lebensende des Buddha, Part 1
- Gaṇḍavyūhasūtra (Vaidya, P. L.)
- Gilgit Manuscripts, Vol. 2 (Part 1)
- Gilgit Manuscripts, Vol. 2 (Part 2)
- Gilgit Manuscripts, Vol. 2 (Part 3)
- Lalita Vistara: Leben und Lehre des Çâkya-Buddha, Erster Teil: Text
- Lalita-Vistara (Vaidya, P. L.)
- Lankavatara-Sutra (Das, Sarat Chandra)
- Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra: Sanskrit Manuscript from Nepal
- Mahā-megha-sūtra
- Mārīcīdhāraṇī (Zieme, P.)
- Narayanapariprccha: Sanskrit and Tibetan Texts
- Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā (Vaidya, P. L.)
- Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā: Sūtra du Mahāyāna (1901)
- Saddharma-Puṇḍarīka-Sūtra: Kashgar Manuscript
- Saddharmalankavatarasutram (Vaidya, P. L.)
- Saddharmapuṇḍarīka (1908)
- Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtram (Wogihara and Tsuchida)
- Saddharmapuṇḍarīkanāmamahāyānasūtram (Kawaguchi and Ikeda)
- Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra (Vaidya, P. L.)
- Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtram (Dutt, N.)
- Samantabhadracaryā-praṇidhānarāja (Devi)
- Samādhirāja-Sūtram (Das, Sarat)
- Samādhirājasūtra (Vaidya, P. L.)
- Samādhirājasūtra (Vira and Chandra)
- Sarvadharmāpravṛttinirdeśa (Braarvig, J.)
- Saṃgharakshita (Cowell and Neil)
- Saṃgharakṣitāvadāna (Bibliotheca Polyglotta)
- Saṃgharakṣitāvadānam (Vaidya, P. L.)
- Siṃhaparipṛcchāsūtra (Tseng, V.)
- Studies in the Divyāvadāna: I. Sūkarikāvadāna
- Studies in the Literature of the Great Vehicle
- Suvarna Prabhā
- Suvarṇaprabhāsasūtram (Bagchi, S.)
- Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra: Das Goldglanz-Sūtra (Nobel 1937)
- Sūkarikāvadāna (Cowell and Neil)
- Sūkarikāvadānam (Vaidya, P. L.)
- Sūtra of Aṅgulimālika
- The Acceptance of Evil Acts in the Śīla-paṭala of the Yogācārabhūmi
- The Bhaiṣajyaguru-Sūtra and the Buddhism of Gilgit
- The Final Leaves of the Pravrajyāvastu Portion of the Vinayavastu Manuscript Found Near Gilgit: Part 1 Saṃgharakṣitāvadāna
- The Gandavyuha Sutra (1949)
- The Gilgit Text of the Vajracchedikā
- The Gāthās of the Daśabhūmika-Sūtra (1–5)
- The Gāthās of the Daśabhūmika-Sūtra (6–10)
- The Hymn of the Life and Vows of Samantabhadra
- The Khotanese Bhadracaryādeśanā
- The Khotanese Śūraṅgamasamādhisūtra
- The Lalita-Vistara, or Memoirs of the Early Life of Śákya Siñha (Sanskrit)
- The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra (Bunyu)
- The Laṅkāvatāra-ratna-sūtram: Sarva-buddha-pravacana-hṛdayam
- The Manuscript of the Vajracchedikā Found at Gilgit
- The Perfection of Wisdom (Schopen)
- The Ratnarāśisūtra Quoted in the Śikṣāsamuccaya
- The Saddharma Laṅkāvatārasūtra (Vaipulya Sūtra)
- The Samādhi Lists of the Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra and the Mahāvyutpatti
- The Story of Saṅgharakṣita (Stories 23–25)
- The Suvarṇaprabhāsa Sūtra (Nanjio and Idzumi)
- The Suvarṇaprabhāsa Sūtra: A Mahayana Text called "The Golden Splendour"
- The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra
- The Śālistamba Sūtra
- Two Sanskrit Manuscripts of the Daśabhūmikasūtra
- Unique Sanskrit Fragments of the "Sūtra of the Golden Light" in the Manuscript Collection of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies (Russian Academy of Sciences)
- Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā (Conze)
- Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā (Dutt)
- Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā (Sanskrit)
- Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitāsūtra (Joshi, L.)
- Vajracchedikā in the Original Sanskrit
- Vajracchedikā nāma Triśatikā Prajñāpāramitā
- Vimalakīrtinirdeśa: A Sanskrit Edition Based upon the Manuscript Newly Found at the Potala Palace
- Vimalakīrtinirdeśa: Transliterated Sanskrit Text Collated with Tibetan and Chinese Translations
- Vimalakīrtinirdeśasūtra (Joshi and Prāsādika)
- Vinayaviniścaya Upāliparipṛcchā (Dutt, N.)
- Çatasāhasrikā-Prajñā-Pāramitā: A Theological and Philosophical Discourse of Buddha with His Disciples (in a Hundred-Thousand Stanzas), Vol. 1
- Çatasāhasrikā-Prajñā-Pāramitā: A Theological and Philosophical Discourse of Buddha with His Disciples (in a Hundred-Thousand Stanzas), Vol. 2
- Ārya Śrīaṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitāsūtram (Vajrācārya, H.)
- Ārya Śālistamba Sūtra (Sastri, N.)
- Āryaśrīdaśabhūmikasūtram (Herākājī Vajrācārya)
Description
My interest in the samādhi lists of the Mahāyāna scripture called Akṣayamatinirdeśa and of the Sanskrit-Tibetan Buddhist dictionary called Mahāvyutpatti was aroused by my present enterprise in translating the Akṣayamatinirdeśa from Tibetan and Sanskrit fragments. I was intrigued that the sūtra's samādhi list, which was ignored by the Tanjur commentary dubiously attributed to Vasubandhu, had only a few items obviously in common with the Mahāvyutpatti list, and yet the sūtra's list in its Tibetan version and the Mahāvyutpatti set had exactly the same number of items, namely 118. Wondering if there was any order to be found in these hundred-odd names of samādhis or whether they were an arbitrary, careless listing, I initially tried grouping them by shared words, such as dharma, or by states, such as experiences of light.[1] The trouble with this method, as later was revealed, is that it depends upon a personal attempt limited by a here-now consciousness. The approach adopted in this paper resorts to an ancient work to suggest the method to be employed.
In the process of determining various quotations and references to the Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra in later works for a separate report,[2] I noticed in the Mahāyāna-Sūtrālaṃkāra, Chap. IV, a list of 22 similes for generating the mind of enlightenment, associated with various terms of the Buddhist path, and at the end referring to the ' Akṣayamatisūtra.' Sylvain Lévi, who edited the Sūtrālaṃkāra, with customary scholarship attempted, although unsuccessfully, to locate the passage either in the Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra or in the Akṣayamatiparipṛcchāsūtra, respectively in the Mahāsamnipāta and Ratnakūṭa scriptural classes of the Chinese canon.[3] By my work on the Akṣayamatinirdeśa I knew that the Sutrālaṃkāra list did go with this sūtra, not with a particular passage but rather with the eighty topics called akṣaya of this scripture, grouping them into twenty-two. Now, I too had looked into the small sūtra in the Tibetan Ratnakūṭa, which stresses sets of ten and among these presents a list only by numbers one to ten of generations of mind along with ten associated named samādhis.[4] This then suggested the method. The way this sūtra associates generations of mind by numbers with samādhis does not appear relevant to the Akṣayamatinirdeśa list of samādhis. But the fact that it makes such an association does seem relevant. It suggested a try to see if the twenty-two generations of mind which the Sūtrālaṃkāra claimed were based on the Akṣayamati somehow fit the samādhi list in that sūtra.
Notes
- For general information about samādhi lists from the Chinese Buddhist canon see Lewis R. Lancaster, Samadhi Names in Buddhist Texts: Malalasekera Commemoration Volume, Colombo 1976, pp. 196—202.
- This essay is due to appear in a volume being published in India.
- Sylvain Lévi, ed., Asaṅga: Mahāyāna-Sūtrālaṃkāra, Paris 1907, p. 17, n. 20.
- Ārya-akṣayamati-paripṛcchā-nāma-mahāyāna-sūtra, Kanjur, Dkon-brtsegs (édition of Peking canon, Japanese photographic edition, Vol. 24, p. 206, fol. 2).
